Hitting The Sydney Streets

August 31, 2001-Sydney, Australia

(photos:
Waiting to tour Opera House,
Dining companions)

We started our day at an Internet Café. The cost here is $4 for unlimited time. You can’t beat that. Wending our way to the Opera House, we decided to visit the Great Synagogue. It’s only open on Tuesday and Thursday for tours. Saying that David was a rabbi wouldn’t even open the door. They told us to come back for Shabbat services.

Heading for the Botanical Gardens we passed yet another McDonalds. I swear this town has more than the U.S. Several had McCafes. They’re coffee counters that serve pastries, espresso, etc., but they’re run by and are part of McDonalds. Sydney’s trying to out-Seattle Seattle.

Gutsy Guides

The Gardens are lovely even in winter. They’re on a hill overlooking the bay and Opera House. The Opera House looked more appealing today as it peeked through the trees in the distance. They have small nooks and crannies in the garden and lots of benches. Most flowers weren’t in bloom but the setting was a delight. The best part was the sign that welcomes visitors. It asked people to please walk on the grass, hug a tree, or smell a flower.

We stopped to tour Government House. Our guide was the best part. She was very opinionated about past governors, the style changes to the house, the selection of the colors of flowers in the arrangements, and the royals whose portraits were displayed. At one point she noted King Edward VII and his long-suffering and lovely wife. It seems he had a bit of a wandering eye. She agreed with me that he was their version of Bill Clinton. She used the word ”baltzy” to describe the Irish who came to Australia. When asked for a definition, she said they were assertive. I think we’d say “ballsy.” Being the font of knowledge of everything Australian, we asked her about the odd bird with the long curved beak we’d seen yesterday. There were some on the lawn of the house. She told us they were ibis. She assured us there are many varieties of ibis in the world. I was a bit disappointed that the name was not more exotic. I was hoping for at least four syllables.

We continued on down the hill with our eyes riveted on the sail-like roof of our destination. We spotted another strange looking bird that amused us. I called it a crow wannabe. It’s shaped like a crow but is black and white. The white part is very bright and looks as if the bird was spattered with paint. We knew this wasn’t the case unless the whole flock of them had run into Jackson Pollock.

We had to wait for the next tour of the Opera House so we grabbed lunch by the quay and watched the bridge climbers. The bridge is open for climbing 24 hours a day rain or shine. They don’t sell advance tickets for the Opera House tour and by the time we got to the ticket office the next tour was fully booked. They gave us drink coupons and we sat at a café to wait. David waited. I fell asleep.

Opera Lore

The Opera House was grossly over budget when it was built. I think it was supposed to cost 8 million Australian dollars and take two years to complete. It actually cost over 102 million Australian dollars and took ten years. The Scandinavian architect walked off the job and has never returned to Australia. Ultimately it was paid for from funds raised by selling lottery tickets. The lottery is still in existence with some of the funds going to the arts.

Performances start exactly on time. The doors to the theaters close and no latecomers are admitted. They’ve locked out their own Prime Minister and George Bush, Sr. who had to wait until the next interval (intermission). We saw the theater where dramas are performed and I must admit I was disappointed at the interior. The place is shabby. The lobby for this area is tacky at best and has low ceilings. It reminded me of a Cineplex. There are about five performing arenas in the building. There’s a separate concert hall and opera hall due to differing acoustical needs. In all, there were over 2,000 performances there last year.

Once we moved up to the main lobby for the concert and opera areas the architecture changed dramatically. Ceilings soared and concrete buttresses created the vaulted heights expected when the building is viewed from the exterior. There was a rehearsal in the opera house so we only saw the concert hall. It’s contemporary in the extreme as is the whole structure but this performance space is what I ‘d imagined. Pick a superlative and it would fit. It’s stark in its grandeur and regal in its mass.

In reference to my comment about the dullness of the roof in my email of yesterday, the roof is made of beige and white ceramic tiles that were treated to be self-cleaning and to prevent the growth of moss. When it rains they somehow clean themselves. There are well over 1.5 million tiles and only four have fallen off in the twenty-two years since the Opera House opened. The exterior of the building is modular so portions can be removed for maintenance and then put back in place.

English As A Second Language

I just remembered something our guide Hai told us in Hue. As we climbed out of our touring car for the hundredth time, he told us to “watch our heads.” He then laughed and said that Americans use that term, but it’s impossible to actually watch your own head. We agreed that the British caution to “mind your head” made more sense.

Today was filled with many instances of the foreignness of our native tongue. At the Opera House we read a sign in English and were clueless. We were at the coat check desk and the sign said, ”Cloaked items are now available at the stage door.” We understood that they called the place a cloakroom, but that was as far as we got. David went into the gift shop to ask for a translation. It seems that when you check an item at the cloakroom, it’s considered to be cloaked. Therefore, if you forget to pick up the cloaked item after the show it’s taken to the stage door area where it can be retrieved at a later time.

So it made sense in a warped way that they were out of maps in English at the Tourist Information Bureau. They explained that although the commentary could be had in any of 10 languages, the streets and sites were all on the map in English so we should be able to do just fine. That eliminated any chance of us not understanding Australian English. I opted for the French explanations.

As we strolled up to George St. to catch a bus back to the hotel, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. We passed many boutiques but one of them was cleverly named FCUK. It offered contemporary clothing for Fashion Conscious Uninhibited Kustomers. That’s a thin line they’re walking.

With our magic phone cards we spoke to Wendy, Daniel, Vikki, and Alex yesterday. It was good to hear their voices. At a cost of seven cents per minute our calls will be more frequent than we thought possible. We also made contact with Surfer’s Paradise. They didn’t mention an address for us. We’ll find that out tomorrow. We did ask about the things we shipped six weeks ago from the States. I think our baggage Karma has just run out. Our belongings haven’t arrived. We’ll begin investigating on Monday.

Tomorrow it’s Coolangatta and our new home. Please keep your emails coming.

Toby